Red Winter

Red Winter, Book 1

By: Annette Marie

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Emi is the kamigakari. In a few short months, her life as a mortal will end, and her new existence as the human host of a goddess will begin. Carefully hidden from those who would destroy her, she has prepared her mind, body, and soul to unite with the goddess - and not once has she doubted her chosen fate.

Shiro is a yokai, a spirit of the earth, an enemy of the goddess Emi will soon host. Mystery shrouds his every move, and his ruby eyes shine with cunning she can't match and dares not trust. But she saved his life, and until his debt is paid, he is hers to command - whether she wants him or not. On the day they meet, everything Emi believes comes undone, swept away like snow upon the winter wind. For the first time, she wants to change her fate - but how can she erase a destiny already wrought in stone? Against the power of the gods, Shiro is her only hope...and hope is all she has left.

©2016 Annette Marie (P)2017 Tantor

wonderful all-around listen!

Firstly, the trilogy is amazing. Full of romance, humor, abd nerve-wrCking moments. You also learn a lot about the Japanese culture. (the kindle version has pictures through out and meanings of Japanese words at the end).

The narrator is the BEST female narrator (Nick Podehl being one of the best male narrators). She bas the best male voices and I can truly believe the characters. She doesn't just read eitger... her inflections and natural ability at narrating makes the story feel real, like you are THERE watching it. It does not seem "fake". She is truly amazing!

Both the great story and amazing narration contribute to this being one of my top audible books and I have quite a huge variety (over 1,000 audible books).
I actually wish this was not a trilogy and more books were coming....I just fell in love with all the characters!!

Fun Story

I read a lot of fantasy and this one is so different. I love this series and really recommend it.

Sorry I could not continue to listen

The narrator kept saying qi incorrectly and I'm not usually a snob when it comes to words, but i just could not tolerate one more instance of that word being mispronounced. I don't remember exactly how she said it but it is supposed to be chi with a ch hard sound. I think she was saying it as if it was queee with a "u" in there or a quuh with a totally limp sound. Since I did not recognize the word she was saying and had to continually correct her, it became too frustrating to listen to. I'm disappointed because the storyline was pretty good. I tried to convince myself to overlook the mispronunciation, but then I would wander off and think about how disrespectful it was to mispronounce a word because its origin was not from America but from an Asian language.

Love

I just love this book. The story line, the pace, and especially the performance was phenomenal. This is one of my favorite authors and to hear this story play out was a great listening experience.

Love The Trilogy

I have listened to and read this trilogy 3 times now... It’s just a fun and exciting book to read or listen to... Emily Woo Zellar does an awesome job bringing such personalities to each characters... from sarcasm, to haughtiness, to ignorance, and innocence ... I loved this trilogy because I can see this being an awesome Anime movie... which I hope someone creates... I would love to see book 3 come to life on a tv or computer screen...

a main character that actually does things!

The start is slow and the main character a bit annoying but as the story progresses, she gets bolder and her thought process less narrow. She is a rare lead that doesn't quit and doesnt rely on the love interests to rescue her as they're more likely to kill her. The narrator does a great job of pronouncing most Japanese words. and Qi/ki is pronounced correctly. The Japanese say it like key. like Genki.

love love love

at first I was hesitant and lost because I have no knowledge of the culture.. but I soon was hooked.. action packed loved the reader.. I highly recommend..

Overly Dramatic Narration Ruined it

I usually like Emily Woo Zeller, but her narration for this book was WAY over the top. She acted out Every. Single. Word. Even when it didn’t make sense to do so. She also made the FMC sound more whiney and wimpy than I think the author intended. Overall it was distracting and took away from the story for me.

As for the story, I love Annette Marie and I think she is wonderful at world building and painting a beautiful picture in the reader’s mind, but this story wasn’t my favorite of hers, it started out on the slow side and I didn’t really see a reason for the romantic build between the two MCs. I hope we’ll get more to develop their relationship/connection in the next two books. I know her fans love this series so I’m keeping with it in the hopes that it gets better as it goes along.

Completely worth the initially slow start!

It took me a long time to finally read this series. I love Annette Marie’s work, especially the guild codex and the Spell Weaver series so I don’t know why it took me so long to read this but it sounded kind of boring at first. However, it did pick up and the series has become captivating!

Emi goes from being a naive, obedient, and submissive girl to someone willing to stand up for herself and disobey to do what’s right. It was a refreshing balance between self discovery and being boss while maintaining humility and the ability to ask for help. She has just the right amount of stubbornness to her without it being too over the top like so many YA female leads.

The budding romance is awesome! I am a sucker for romance but I struggle when the whole plot is based on the romance because authors use misunderstandings and selfishness as the obstacles in the book. I love that this book doesn’t do that. Yes there are misunderstandings but they are resolved fairly quickly. The romantic additions are just one of the many things that makes this book awesome.

I love Shiro! His instant flirty persona and his ability to joke through the dangerous and scary situations is awesome! He is so fun and such a tease!

The second book gets 5 stars, this only 4 cause it was a brutally slow start. But stick with it!!! Such a good series even if Japanese culture isn’t initially your thing. So fun!

- 4.5 stars -

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book due to taking a long break because of schoolwork. I believe this is the second or third time I've tried listening to this book, but the first time I've completed it. I think when I first tried reading/listening to this book, I had read the summaries for the other two books and it had stressed me out. I believe I had also spoiled a few moments for myself as well. I unfortunately remember a vital piece of information that I couldn't forget when I was reading/listening to this book.
I honestly enjoyed this book. The main characters are interesting. The narration was fantastic. And I don't really have anything else to say. I will probably update this at a later date when I reread/re-listen to this this book.